Caruntu Stefan Grupa A, anul II Napoleon as Leader

Napoleon is without doubt one of the greatest leaders in military history, his skill as a general both tactically and strategically is without question, his rise to power astounding. Few men in history have had such an impact on world history and he easily ranks along side such leaders as Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan. Like those leaders he was an authoritarian leader and a dictator whose skill was matched by his ambition, one of those who did not know when the possible ended and the impossible began. He was ruthless and would tolerate no argument, which produced a cadre of Marshals capable of carrying out orders well but having never learnt to think and act for themselves. This was to prove disastrous as at Waterloo and in the later stages of the Napoleonic wars. Wellington said that Napoleon was worth 40,000 men on the battlefield but he was just one man who could not be everywhere at once, as the Empire was faced with war on several fronts, the Emperor could not be everywhere. How different the outcome of the Peninsular War would have been if Napoleon had been there is an interesting hypothetical question. Napoleon was a tremendous innovator and administrator. His skill with logistics and the ability to raise tremendous amounts of manpower was at times amazing. He changed the face of warfare from the sport of kings to the nation at arms, with the whole nation being placed on a war footing, conscription, mass production and truly a nation under arms, the beginning of modern Total War. He also instigated many fiscal, legal and educational reforms in France but those are not within the scope of this article. As a leader of men he was a great motivator and orator, he knew how to inspire fierce loyalty bordering on worship despite the fact he would cynically send tens of thousands to their deaths if it suited his purpose. He made a point of walking the line of troops before a battle and recognising a veteran or two and taking to them of old times, a human touch that some have suggested was staged to raise morale, something that would not have been beyond him. He knew how to raise morale and get the best from weak troops and knew the value of praise and both monetary rewards as bestowed on his Marshals and less tangible rewards such as medals as with the Legion DeHonour he instigated. Militarily he honed the Corps system of army groups able to function completely independently with their own logistics, scouts, command, artillery etc which allowed him to time

Caruntu Stefan Grupa A, anul II

and time again to divide his enemies with a smaller force holding a much larger enemy while he concentrated and destroyed another enemy force. He enlarged the cavalry and once again made it a real battlefield shock force not just scouts and pursuing forces and in many battles large devastating cavalry charges turned the tide. Most famously he made use of the column formation for his infantry, which proved a very successful mobile formation against such linear armies as that of Austria and Prussia, with only the tactical skill of Lord Wellington being able to regularly defeat it. As a former artilleryman he increased the size and number of guns and the Napoleonic artillery made great progress towards its modern form in both technology and tactics.